It was six days ago, on June 3oth, that a severe thunderstorm formed over Lake Michigan and moved south, 5-10 miles off shore of Kenosha. Though the storm didn’t come over land in our area,  hurricane force winds, up to 75 mph, swept across the lake and slammed into the lake shore areas. The winds uprooted hundreds of trees, snapped power poles, caused much property damage and left thousands without power for up to three days. It also turned Kenosha’s beautiful lake shore parks into tangled messes of downed trees and branches.

During the storm I was able to grab a little video from our living room window, I then went out on Friday morning and shot some video of the damage. The first video contains those scenes. Yesterday I was able to get to the hardest hit area, South Port Park, and I shot some video of the damage there. That’s the second video.

Kenosha is still a mess and there’s a lot of clean up left. Thankfully all power was restored on Sunday.

 
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Severe Thunderstorm Watch #441 was just issued for all of SE Wisconsin, including Kenosha.

At 5:00pm CDT storms are beginning to fire here in SE WI. The action should pick up as the evening progresses and the cold front begins to move through. The main threat this evening will be large hail and damaging winds, but tornadoes can’t be ruled out.

My high temp at the house today was 94 with a heat index of 100. Yesterday’s high was 96. These are the two hottest days we’ve had in the 3 1/2 years that I’ve lived in Wisconsin.

Tomorrow the bottom drops out of the temps though. Thursday’s forecasted high in Kenosha, 58! We stay in the high 50′s to low 60′s for the next five days with rain chances 4 of the 5.

So much for summer.

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I guess it’s official, May was the payback month for the warm, sunny November we had last year. Most of May was more like fall than spring, with cool, cloudy and rainy weather. Here’s a rundown of the the month from my observations at home.

• Average High Temperature: 59 – 3 degrees below average
• Average Low Temperature: 45 – 3 degrees below average
• Highest High Temp: 85 on the 31st
• Lowest Low Temp: 34 on the 5th
• Precipitation total: 4.36 inches – 1.68 inches above average
• 15 of the 31 days had measurable precipitation
• No snow fell this month
• 1 Severe Thunderstorm Watch
• 1 Tornado Watch
• 1 Severe Thunderstorm Warning
• 5 days rated Slight Risk Severe Thunderstorms by the SPC
• 1 day rated Moderate Risk Severe Thunderstorms by the SPC
• We only had 2 days that were cloud free all day and night.
• 21 days were mostly cloudy or cloudy.

Here’s the link to my weather log: Kenosha WI, 12 Month Weather Log

Now we enter June, our biggest severe weather month, we’ll see what it brings. The next 5 day are forecast to continue the temperature roller coaster ride that we’ve been on the last couple weeks: 73, 59, 87, 85 & 70
Only two of these days have rain forecasted though.

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When will this endless winter end?

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URGENT – WINTER WEATHER MESSAGE

NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE RENO NV
401 AM PDT SAT MAY 28 2011

…SNOW ACCUMULATIONS EXPECTED LATER TODAY AND TONIGHT…

.AN UNSEASONABLY COLD LOW PRESSURE AND COLD FRONT WILL SPREAD
BANDS OF SNOW OVER NORTHEAST CALIFORNIA AND THE LAKE TAHOE BASIN.

CAZ071-282300-
/O.NEW.KREV.WW.Y.0025.110528T2100Z-110529T0600Z/
LASSEN-EASTERN PLUMAS-EASTERN SIERRA COUNTIES-
INCLUDING THE CITIES OF…PORTOLA…SUSANVILLE
401 AM PDT SAT MAY 28 2011

…WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY IN EFFECT FROM 2 PM THIS AFTERNOON TO
11 PM PDT THIS EVENING…

THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN RENO HAS ISSUED A WINTER WEATHER
ADVISORY FOR SNOW…WHICH IS IN EFFECT FROM 2 PM THIS AFTERNOON
TO 11 PM PDT THIS EVENING.

* TIMING: SNOW WILL INCREASE DURING THE AFTERNOON AND CONTINUE
INTO THE EVENING MAINLY ACROSS WESTERN LASSEN COUNTY…AND
CENTRAL PORTIONS OF PLUMAS AND SIERRA COUNTIES.

* SNOW ACCUMULATIONS: 2 TO 5 INCHES WEST OF HIGHWAY 395 NEAR AND
ABOVE 5000 FEET. EAST OF HIGHWAY 395 AND IN LOWER
ELEVATIONS…UP TO 2 INCHES ARE POSSIBLE.

* SNOW LEVELS: 5000 TO 5500 FEET…THEN LOWERING TO THE VALLEY
FLOOR BY LATE AFTERNOON.

* IMPACTS: SLICK AND SNOW COVERED ROADS MAINLY ABOVE 5000 FEET
DURING PERIODS OF HEAVIER SNOW. CHAIN CONTROLS POSSIBLE BY THIS
EVENING OVER YUBA PASS AND FREDONYER SUMMIT…HIGHWAY 89 NORTH
OF TRUCKEE AND HIGHWAY 44 WEST OF SUSANVILLE.

PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS…

SNOW IS EXPECTED TO POSE AN INCONVENIENCE TO TRAVELERS. ROADS
WILL BECOME SLICK AND HAZARDOUS…WITH SNOW AND ICE FIRST
DEVELOPING ON BRIDGES AND OVERPASSES. MOTORISTS SHOULD SLOW DOWN
AND USE CAUTION. CHECK OUR WEBSITE AT WEATHER.GOV/RENO OR LISTEN
TO NOAA WEATHER RADIO FOR UPDATES ON THIS SITUATION.

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